Boat, paddle, wade or shore let's talk fishing

[heinz57]

Fly and I were thieving on another thread so I figured I'd start up one devoted to fishing.

In the last few months I've been fly fishing the Kern River a lot in Sequoia National Forest. My room mate and I usually park along the road somewhere and hike ~5-10 miles to set up a small camp, fish for a day and a half or so and then head on back. It makes for great little weekend trips. The scenery is beautiful and the fishing is good once you get away from the population. It's not as nice as the National Park, but you get away with a lot more permit wise in National Forests, plus it's closer to where we live. We also took a quick trip to Colorado and fished 11 mile canyon, but that was some tough fishing on account of the popularity.

About two weeks ago I went fishing in central Ontario for walleye and northern pike. Nothing too big, but walleye are probably my favorite fresh water eating fish, so I was in heaven.

We're all packed up and heading to Banff next weekend for a two weeks excursion through the Canadian Rockies, and I can't wait. Expect to see some sweet pictures from that when I get back.

[chickens4life]

The last two years I have been fishing small streams in the Roosevelt national forest here in northern Colorado, mostly really small creeks at high elevation that flow into the cache la poudre river. As long as it is a few miles from a road these creeks are amazing, its beautiful and there are lots of cutthroat, not big ones very often but lots of them.

I have also taken up bowfishing for carp this year and had a little more fun than i should have shooting carp from the banks of small reservoirs around here.

[flyangler18]

Copy-pasta from the other thread:


Originally Posted by heinz57


I tend to hike upstream about 5 miles off trail to find some of the less frequented fishing holes. That's usually well passed the hiking limit for most of the people I've talked to, and the fishing is considerably better in those areas. Trout can be pretty damn fickle in highly fished areas.

That's the way I liked to fish when we still lived in VA. Brook trout were highly spooky but voracious feeders in those little pocket pools where competition for food was fierce. An errant false cast and they'd drop down. I'd have to use a bow cast and just flick out the 13' spring creek leader on a 7 foot 3 wt. . Elk-hair caddis patterns always produced for me or terrestrials late in the season (like a hopper or ant pattern). One of my favorite streams here in PA is the LeTort. Classic English limestone creek with a really silty bottom, so you can't wade. Big fat and wily brown trout. Super selective not because of fishing pressure, but because the currents are really challenging to get a perfect presentation.

[flyangler18]

The white-fly hatch should be coming off soon here in PA, which means some serious smallmouth action. At this time of year, the rivers drop really low so they're wadeable without too much trouble and bass will cluster around the exposed boulders sipping flies.

[Green Goblin]

3937this isn't finished yet. Scenery to be added, but to show some love for the sport. I fish alot of trout and largemouth bass. Used to do the streams alot but not a fan of the poison ivy. Got my grandfathers old 67 alumacraft with a 7.5 outboard. That's all I need to be happy now. Lol. And of course a cooler of homebrew!

[Ó Flannagáin]

I did a lot of large mouth fishing growing up in Alabama. When I moved to NC I got into flyfishing.. not hard core, but caught plenty of trout and had a good time. Now that I live by the beach I thought I'd do some fishing down here. EVERYONE FISHES WITH BAIT! I'm a lure fisher, I like playing the lure as I real in. This bait fishing is weird and I Just can't get into it. I heard you can fly fish in the gulf though, just haven't researched it enough.

[Lerxst]

Love to fish. I'm starting up fly fishing this year.

[flyangler18]

I haven't done too much salt-water fishing, but if you're fishing off the surf or trolling, you're going to use bait.

Yup, you're in some prime territory for tarpon and redfish on the fly. Some of the best fishing I've ever done was down in Key West on the bonefish flats.

[chickens4life]

I am with you on the bait fishing thing, I even went through a phase in high school and college where i carved my own bass crank baits and all. but i haven't even been bass fishing once this year.
Also, I could swear i have talked to people about fly fishing for in the gulf, just can't remember what for. If it comes to me I will let you know.

[flyangler18]

Love to fish. I'm starting up fly fishing this year.

You're not far from some blue-ribbon water. The Tulpehocken gets heavily fished, but there's some incredible sections.

[Lerxst]

I haven't done too much salt-water fishing, but if you're fishing off the surf or trolling, you're going to use bait.

Yup, you're in some prime territory for tarpon on the fly. Some of the best fishing I've ever done was down in Key West on the bonefish flats.

I've done skipjack and stripers with artificial rigs but for eats its hard to beat catching blackfish with little green crabs

[Lerxst]

You're not far from some blue-ribbon water. The Tulpehocken gets heavily fished, but there's some incredible sections.

I'm happy as a clam pulling smallies and cats out of the river. Nothing is rather do on a warm day than wade out into the flow around bulls island and toss flipping tubes for small mouth with a stealth beer in my pocket. Sounds folksey but its super mellow; just you and the river kinda thing.

[heinz57]

The fishing sub reddit is pretty good too, it's fairly diverse as far as what people generally fish for, but largemouth seems to be the most prevalent fish caught.

I found this kick ass video of a dude fly fishing for largemouth from Catch magazine.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlpVVKvrnu0

[Milf Man]

Wifey and I are headed to uppermost Calif next week for 6 days of Salmon, Steelhead, Rainbow and Brownies.

I really need a good vacation!

Cheers,

MILF Man

[Hex]

FWIW, this is me, HexAngler (http://www.ryanrodco.com).

[Peteoz77]

I have a buddy in the coastal town where our holiday house is. He rings me up when he know I am in town, and we take his 45 footer out to the continental shelf (where it gets DEEEEP). We throw the ocean rods out, usually 5-6 of them and then just troll back and forth until something hits... It's all very easy until you get something BIG on the line. It's also not cheap. Hi new boat was over $1million and it cost him $200K to get it shipped from USA. It costs about $200 for fuel to go out and back and fish for 3-4 hours. I won't even go in to what it costs to have the damned thing parked and serviced... But hell he loves it and can afford it, and I just love to go along for the ride... and the fishing.

[Brewingchick]

I'm an avid fisherman, er, fisherperson?

One of the reasons we live where we do is because of the thousands of inland lakes and rivers (many of them blue-ribbon trout streams). We fish for mostly walleye, panfish, and of course bass (which we don't keep, just catch and release). I don't do much trout fishing, but I enjoy walleye and bass action on the rivers. In the winter, we do quite a bit of salt-water fishing when we do the snowbird thing.

I've fished in Canada, Belize, the out islands of the Bahamas, and in lots of places in the US. I've got everything from yellow-tailed snapper to musky. Even so, one of my favorite meals is fried bluegills. Nothing better!

[Ó Flannagáin]

You should keep some bass, them suckers are TASTY

[Boomhauer]

I'm an avid fisherman, er, fisherperson?

One of the reasons we live where we do is because of the thousands of inland lakes and rivers (many of them blue-ribbon trout streams). We fish for mostly walleye, panfish, and of course bass (which we don't keep, just catch and release). I don't do much trout fishing, but I enjoy walleye and bass action on the rivers. In the winter, we do quite a bit of salt-water fishing when we do the snowbird thing.

I've fished in Canada, Belize, the out islands of the Bahamas, and in lots of places in the US. I've got everything from yellow-tailed snapper to musky. Even so, one of my favorite meals is fried bluegills. Nothing better!

I agree. Nothing better than bluegill. I still have about 6 pounds of bluegill fillets in the freezer, a couple pounds of bass and some catfish cubed fillets left. I agree with Flan also, you should keep the bass.. If you like bluegill you should like bass as well.

[Redweasel]

One of my favorite things in the world is to post up on the bank of the lake by a channel with a cooler full of beer, drop a couple of lines on the bottom for blue cats, and jig for crappie, bass, or bluegill while waiting on the "cat" poles to hit. Not much more relaxing than that.

[heinz57]

I'm gearing up for a two week back packing trip in Banff, so I figured I'd show off some photos from small weekend trips from earlier this year. Both are in Sequoia National Forest.

The first is a shot of one of the giant Sequoias in the Trail of 100 giants. It's a pretty manicured trail that's really short, but draws quite a crowd and has trees that are amazingly old. I don't know if you can make it out in the image, but my room mate is 6'2" and he's at the base of this tree.
3943

Second is a ~14" rainbow I caught in a hole so small I could barely throw my fly out there.
3944

I haven't been able to sit still all week I'm so excited about the trip up to Canada.

[Milf Man]

Wifey and I just got back from 6 days on the Trinity River in Nor Cal.

The salmon fishing was spotty, but we did have some success. She caught this all by herself !

http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/5493/sweetieandalunker.jpg

We are going back in November for Steelhead season.

Cheers,

MILF Man

[Sweetchuck]

Fishing? I missed out on this season because I started a new job in NH. It ain't happening two years in a row, I have a camper now and we're already planning next April to take a week or two back in PA where I fucking nailed them on a daily basis.

And I'm not bragging, I'd take the 3rd week off after opening day (give the LL Bean douchebags a couple weeks to air their $750 rod/reel/vest combo suits out) and I'd go mop up the forest after that.

I'd drop the kid off to school, head down to the creek, catch my limit by 1, take a nap, pick the kid up and head back down to the creek to see him "catch his limit". He caught his fair share mind you.

Now my area is very rural. I rarely see anyone when I'm out and I lived near 5 well stocked streams. I'd fish the shit out of those streams and honestly, I used to see only one guy on one of them. Same guy, owned a camp nearby. Old guy, made a lot of noise. I liked bullshitting with him, but he rarely caught anything. I felt bad when I had to show him my stringer full of fish.

There is this one spot on a creek - and by creek I mean it's ankle deep in most spots. A few holes here and there that might be a foot or two, but there are maybe 4 or 5 spots aside from the "roadside dam" where all the camp owners hang out at that I'll fish. One is a spot with a huge log running over a deep hole. My schtick is to stand there - I don't cast, I stand there and lower my bait right underneath that log, wait a few minutes and bam - pull 'em out. I'll do that until I've caught all the fish in that area and I'll go back to it after a week or two - they'll recongregate. Then I head over to the other stream where there is a deep elbow and a wide flat where you can see everything including the fish. Caught a 24" brown there the year before last, watched him inhale my bait.

Caught two 20+ rainbow and browns under that log also, my kid caught a 20" there that same day (I caught one twice, he hit it and jumped off. I came back 2 hours later to finish the job).

It really sucked this year not being able to hit those old haunts, but I'm going back.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b373/eastms/April2010018.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b373/eastms/April20102002.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b373/eastms/April2010017.jpg

[Redweasel]

Getting pretty fucking excited for the fishing trip weekend after next. I saved the spent grain from my last two batches in a bucket to sour. Planning on baiting the flats by the campsite. Last time I did this we slayed blue cats for hours.

[zombieparty]

Went fly fishing on the south platte above salida, co yesterday. Completely skunked, but it was a beautiful day. 29 degrees when we started, 45 by noon, no wind. It was perfect.

[blacklab]

Used to fly fish the rivers all around Central Oregon back in the day, but have not been able to make much time for it in the past few years.

[Milf Man]

We have reservations for Thanksgiving weekend on the Trinity river for Steelhead season.

Nothing says traditional family holiday like Steelhead fishing!


Cheers,

MILF Man

[Diver Down]

I did a lot of large mouth fishing growing up in Alabama. When I moved to NC I got into flyfishing.. not hard core, but caught plenty of trout and had a good time. Now that I live by the beach I thought I'd do some fishing down here. EVERYONE FISHES WITH BAIT! I'm a lure fisher, I like playing the lure as I real in. This bait fishing is weird and I Just can't get into it. I heard you can fly fish in the gulf though, just haven't researched it enough.
Try out some Berkley Gulp baits. In my book it out catches live bait. Caught some real nice Flounders using the pogies. And some nice Reds on the Gulp shrimp.

[BeerBilly]

I'm an avid lifelong fisherman also but almost exclusively salt water any more.I've had boats forever.I also happen to live at a sport fishing vacation destination,salt and freshwater.I have a 26foot aluminum boat that we persue salmon and halibut with.We also set shrimp and crab gear.4031
This is the Heavy Metal,my other obsession.Bought new in 2000,repowered last year.270 horses giving me 2 mpg!Goes up to 40 kph.

[Diver Down]

That's a Bad Ass boat Billy! I sold my 18' 150hp skiff and got me a new one with 100 less hp.I think that Suzuki 50 4 stroke makes gas!http://www.homebrewchatter.com/board/attachment.php?attachmentid=4038&d=1319124226